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| CA judge says ailment of appellant's father no reason to lower her sentence |
A High Court judge has dismissed an appeal by a Filipina convicted of overstaying on the ground that her sentence was too severe.
One of the grounds cited by Remedios Victoria Abara in
asking for a lower sentence was that she wanted to go home earlier because her
father was seriously ill.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Abara was sentenced to six months imprisonment after surrendering, then pleading guilty to a charge of overstaying for nearly 11.5 years.
In the judgment she handed down on Feb.6, Judge Esther
Toh, sitting as a lone appeal court judge, said the magistrate who imposed the
sentence “rightly considered that the ill health of her father was not a factor
in mitigation because when the Appellant decided to overstay, her father was
already in his 70s.”
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| Pindutin para sa detalye |
Judge Toh cited a case presented by counsel for the
respondent Department of Justice Jason Lau that stated that “the serious
illness of a family member does not generally amount to a humanitarian ground
for the reduction of sentence, except where it is exceptional.”
Apart from this, there was no other ground that could
be used to mitigate the sentence because the right discounts had already been
given to Abara for her guilty plea and surrender to the Immigration Department.
Abara arrived in Hong Kong to work as a domestic
helper in 2009. Her employment contract was terminated the following year but
she did not leave Hong Kong as required.
She finally surrendered to Immigration on Jun 13,
2022, after overstaying for a total of 11 years and 5.5 months.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
When she appeared in court, she told the magistrate
that she decided to surrender because she wanted to go back to the Philippines
because of her sick father.
In sentencing, the magistrate used a starting point of
12 months, then gave a 1/3 discount for the appellant’s guilty plea, then
reduced it further by two months for her voluntary surrender.
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But the magistrate gave no further credit to Abara’s
plea that she needed to go home sooner because of her sick father.
Having looked at previous cases of a similar nature
and the sentences imposed in each, Judge Toh said she did not consider that the
sentence of six months was “manifestly excessive or wrong in principle.”
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
She issued her decision during the hearing of the
appeal on Jan. 16 this year, but handed down her reasons for judgment on Feb.
6.
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| PADALA NA! |
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